Hi All,
I just finished my third year of medical school and I'm interested in applying for Radiology residency positions. I just wanted to know if anyone can offer me advice as I prepare my application. I know that my stats are not competitive (Step 1 between 200-210, 9 Honors in M1 and M2 years, 3 HP in third year rotations (the rest are Passes), Surgery grade is pending). I am scheduled to take Step 2 at the end of July, but I am most likely going to re-schedule it for September 1st because I want to make sure that I have enough time to study since my score needs to be substantially better than my Step 1 score. I am studying for Step 2 CK now, and I am going to continue studying for it in July and August while I take electives and prepare my personal statement. Is September 1st too late to take Step 2 CK? My score should be available by September 29th, at which point I will decide if I want to release it to programs through ERAS. I just want to make sure that then end-of-September timeframe is not too late for programs to consider my Step 2 score as they offer interview invitations.
In terms of my 4th year schedule, I am planning on either taking a 4-week elective in July unrelated to Radiology or taking a 2 week Nuclear Medicine elective during the last 2 weeks of July. Then I am taking an Interventional Radiology elective from 8/2-8/27 at my school. I have to take a required clerkship from 8/30 - 10/8 at my school, so I cannot do another Radiology rotation at my school or a Radiology away rotation during that time. Would doing an away in October/November be too late?
In terms of LOR's, I am planning on having a letter from the IR attending whom I will work with during my elective in August, a letter from my IM attending during my third year clerkship, and a third letter possibly from another Radiology attending (if I take Nuclear Medicine for the last 2 weeks of July) or from a General Surgery attending that I worked with during my third year clerkship. Should I have more than 1 Radiology letter or is it a better strategy to have a variety of letters (1 Rads, 1 IM, 1 Gen Surg)? Also, since my IR elective is in August, I'm pretty sure that the attending won't be done with his LOR until mid-September at the earliest. My goal is to submit the rest of my application on September 1st, so I want to know if it is okay that my IR letter will be uploaded to ERAS later than September 1st.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I want to make sure I do everything to make my application as strong as possible since I already know I'm fighting an uphill battle with a low Step 1 score and no M3 Honors (although my Surgery grade is still pending...).
Thanks in advance for your help!
mdapp06
I just finished my third year of medical school and I'm interested in applying for Radiology residency positions. I just wanted to know if anyone can offer me advice as I prepare my application. I know that my stats are not competitive (Step 1 between 200-210, 9 Honors in M1 and M2 years, 3 HP in third year rotations (the rest are Passes), Surgery grade is pending). I am scheduled to take Step 2 at the end of July, but I am most likely going to re-schedule it for September 1st because I want to make sure that I have enough time to study since my score needs to be substantially better than my Step 1 score. I am studying for Step 2 CK now, and I am going to continue studying for it in July and August while I take electives and prepare my personal statement. Is September 1st too late to take Step 2 CK? My score should be available by September 29th, at which point I will decide if I want to release it to programs through ERAS. I just want to make sure that then end-of-September timeframe is not too late for programs to consider my Step 2 score as they offer interview invitations.
In terms of my 4th year schedule, I am planning on either taking a 4-week elective in July unrelated to Radiology or taking a 2 week Nuclear Medicine elective during the last 2 weeks of July. Then I am taking an Interventional Radiology elective from 8/2-8/27 at my school. I have to take a required clerkship from 8/30 - 10/8 at my school, so I cannot do another Radiology rotation at my school or a Radiology away rotation during that time. Would doing an away in October/November be too late?
In terms of LOR's, I am planning on having a letter from the IR attending whom I will work with during my elective in August, a letter from my IM attending during my third year clerkship, and a third letter possibly from another Radiology attending (if I take Nuclear Medicine for the last 2 weeks of July) or from a General Surgery attending that I worked with during my third year clerkship. Should I have more than 1 Radiology letter or is it a better strategy to have a variety of letters (1 Rads, 1 IM, 1 Gen Surg)? Also, since my IR elective is in August, I'm pretty sure that the attending won't be done with his LOR until mid-September at the earliest. My goal is to submit the rest of my application on September 1st, so I want to know if it is okay that my IR letter will be uploaded to ERAS later than September 1st.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I want to make sure I do everything to make my application as strong as possible since I already know I'm fighting an uphill battle with a low Step 1 score and no M3 Honors (although my Surgery grade is still pending...).
Thanks in advance for your help!
mdapp06
